Form · Trusts & Estate Planning
Family trust election, revocation or variation (ATO approved form): completion guide
Link to the ATO's current approved form and instructions for making, varying or revoking a family trust election, with a practical guide to the decisions, evidence and traps before the trustees sign.
- Kind
- Form. A form to complete, or a guide to completing an official one.
- Where it applies
- Australia
- AI use
- Yellow AI can help in set ways. A lawyer checks specific points before use.
- Law stated as at
- 17 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 17 October 2026 against the official form at ato.gov.au and the 3 authorities it cites, for Australia.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Link to the official form
Where this comes from
The official form is published by ato.gov.au; this page is a completion guide. Last checked on 2026-10-17.
When to use it
Use when a trustee is deciding whether to make a family trust election, or wants to vary the specified individual or revoke an election. Always lodge the ATO's current approved form for the relevant income year; never a copy kept on file.
How AI may be used
AI may pre-fill the form's data fields from verified records and build the family group map for review. Choosing the specified individual and deciding to elect, vary or revoke are lawyer and tax adviser decisions because an election generally cannot be undone.
AI may
- Pre-fill trust, trustee and TFN fields from verified records for checking
- Draft a family group map from a family tree and entity list the lawyer supplies, flagging relationships it cannot confirm
- List past distributions that fall outside the proposed family group, from the trust's resolutions
AI must not
- Must not choose the specified individual or the income year specified
- Must not state that the trust passes the family control test
- Must not receive TFNs in a tool the firm has not approved for tax file number information
The lawyer checks
- The trust passes the family control test at the end of the specified income year
- Distributions since the specified year are within the family group, if an earlier year is specified
- Every trustee signs, and a corporate trustee signs by a director or public officer
- The current year's form is used and lodged by the required time
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Official form
Open the official form. Always use the current version from the issuer.
Read the full text
The full text is for signed-in accounts. It is free. When you sign in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
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